French cuisine is the amazingly high standard to which all other native
cuisines must live up to. The country of France is home of some of the
finest cuisine in the world, and it is created by some of the finest
master chefs in the world. The French people take excessive pride in
cooking and knowing how to prepare a good meal. Cooking is an essential
part of their culture, and it adds to one's usefulness if they are
capable of preparing a good meal.
Each of the four regions of France has a characteristic of its food all
its own. French food in general requires the use of lots of different
types of sauces and gravies, but recipes for cuisine that originated in
the northwestern region of France tend to require the use a lot of
apple ingredients, milk and cream, and they tend to be heavily buttered
making for an extremely rich (and sometimes rather heavy) meal.
Southeastern French cuisine is reminiscent of German food, heavy in
lard and meat products such as pork sausage and sauerkraut.
On the other hand, southern French cuisine tends to be a lot more
widely accepted; this is generally the type of French food that is
served in traditional French restaurants. In the southeastern area of
France, the cooking is a lot lighter in fat and substance. Cooks from
the southeast of France tend to lean more toward the side of a light
olive oil more than any other type of oil, and they rely heavily on
herbs and tomatoes, as well as tomato-based products, in their culinary
creations.
Cuisine Nouvelle is a more contemporary form of French cuisine that
developed in the late 1970s, the offspring of traditional French
cuisine. This is the most common type of French food, served in French
restaurants. Cuisine Nouvelle can generally be characterized by shorter
cooking times, smaller food portions, and more festive, decorative
plate presentations. Many French restaurant cuisines can be classified
as Cuisine Nouvelle, but the more traditional French restaurant cuisine
would be classified as Cuisine du Terroir, a more general form of
French cooking than Cuisine Nouvelle. Cuisine du Terroir is an attempt
to return to the more indigenous forms of French cooking, especially
with reference to regional differences between the north and south, or
different areas such as the Loire Valley, Catalonia, and Rousillon.
These are all areas famous for their specific specialty of French
cuisine. As time has progressed, the difference between a white wine
from the Loire Valley and a wine from another area has slowly
diminished, and the Cuisine du Terroir approach to French cooking
focuses on establishing special characteristics between regions such as
this.
As part of their culture, the French incorporate wine into nearly every
meal, whether it is simply as a refreshment or part of the recipe for
the meal itself. Even today, it is a part of traditional French culture
to have at least one glass of wine on a daily basis.
